The obscurity that granted Macs lower risk for unauthorized manipulation is now gone. This is not a surprise to anyone who knows computer security. When I first entered the antihacking field (around 1987), the only malware programs running on personal computers were Apple computer viruses. Then IBM PCs gained in popularity and MS-DOS viruses took over, migrating to Windows as it became the most popular operating system. Apple computers shrunk to a small segment of the market, and the incentive to attack them waned.

The principle should be applied within -- not across -- software categories: operating systems versus other operating systems, browsers versus other browsers, and so on. It's easy to see, then, why Adobe PDF files are successfully attacked more than Microsoft's XPS format. Or why iTunes is attacked more than Windows Media Player. Or why Apache Web server is attacked more than Internet Information Service. It's why Sun's Java is attacked more than .Net Framework, and it's why Internet Explorer and Windows are attacked more than Safari or OS X.

Note that I'm talking about successful attacks, not hack attempts -- nor am I making judgments about which software is more "secure." In my corollary, those details are irrelevant. For example, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari routinely have more publicly discovered security vulnerabilities compared to Internet Explorer, but Internet Explorer is successfully attacked more often.

The reason is simple: Malicious hackers follow the money. It's why my home state of Florida leads the world in shark attacks. Florida's sharks aren't more bloodthirsty than other sharks, but Florida has a large, three-sided coastline with great year-round weather. Thus, we have more people in the water (with sharks) than any other geographic location of similar size.

If you're a Mac user, it's time to answer the wake-up call. Most malware attacks succeed because the user fails to take simple precautions. Windows users, while they still screw up routinely, have the benefit of years of scolding and cautionary verses. Mac users, by contrast, have felt themselves immune -- which makes them easier marks. Macs have no special security defense that decreases their susceptibility to attack. The obscurity of the platform is now gone.

Apple and its users must join the rest of the world in aggressively fighting the cyber creeps of the world and their creations. Welcome, Mac users, to the big time.